REPLY TO PHILBRICK: II

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Mr. Philbrick has probably picked his first chance to react to the stinging rebuke to his unfounded criticism of the FOR on the eve of its 40th Anniversary. The January Issue of Fellowship described his criticism of FOR in the following way:

"At best, his article was an example of slovenly journalism; at worst, it was dishonest sensationalism."

The rebuke left Mr. Philbrick with little for rebuttal. Rather than reply directly to the FOR itself, he has chosen to chide the Harvard students' FOR, a small and recently organized group who are circulating a respectful petition. . . .

To read today's account of Mr. Philbrick about the famine in China one would think the flood of the Yangtze River but a rumor. The Chinese Communists have "allegedly lost crops due to a flood." This flood was mentioned in most of the local papers in August of last year as the worst in China's history for the Yangtze River. The last flood of that river, less severe than this one, drowned 140,000 persons and left 10 million homeless. The famine that followed in its wake brought death by starvation to 52 million Chinese men, women, and children. This is the "alleged flood." But Mr. Philbrick seems to think that the people in the Soviet orbit are well fed because official Kremlin sources say so. To him China is all in the same package with the U.S.S.R. Political boundaries mean little to Mr. Philbrick in nearly as undiscriminating a way as do his ideological boundaries between organizations, here at home. He even goes so far as to ignore the famine by sloppily designating Viet Mihn, the U.S.S.R., and Communist China as "well-fed reds."

Mr. Philbrick may be interested to know that the "surplus food for China program" has not been undertaken with the thought of wasting time. At the 1954 Annual Meeting of the Mass. Council of Churches a resolution was unanimously passed, asking President Eisenhower to release surplus food to China to relieve this famine. Many outstanding religious leaders in this nation support this program among whom are Bishop W. Appleton Lawrence; Edwin T. Dahlberg, former President American Baptist Convention; John Haynes Holmes, Minister Emeritus, Community Church, New York; Matthew W. Clair, Bishop, Methodist Church; and many others. The church at which I am minister has unanimously adopted a resolution supporting the Mass. Council of Churches in this matter, and many ministers I know personally are preaching sermons on this subject because they think it of prime importance.

But I expect that none of these arguments will persuade Mr. Philbrick especially that the clergy support of the question. According to Mr. Philbrick, not long ago there are six, seven, or eight Communist clergymen in the Boston area. After making these charges in "secret" testimony-- it was headline news the next day--Philbrick went on to point out that he had no "legal" evidence, a point which the papers didn't find much use for. These people turned out to be such names as the Rev. Joseph Fletcher of the Episcopal Theological Seminary, the Rev. Kenneth DePew Hughes of St. Bartholomew's Church and the Rev. Donald Lothrop of the Community Church, Boston. Mr. Philbrick doesn't mind making irresponsible charges; he claimed that he had once spoken at Community Church but when the Rev. Mr. Lothrop could not find any record of this in the carefully kept archives of his church, he asked Mr. Philbrick in a letter whether he had perhaps spoken there under a different name. Mr. Philbrick never answered.

It would be a joy if Mr. Philbrick would become responsible enough to keep at his own work. He would be the first to claim that religion is what the Western Nations have that the Communist countries do not have. But when he interferes with the work of religious forces by attempting to impose his own impetuous misrepresentation, he is merely undermining the freedoms he claims to preserve. It would seem to this observer that he is either miffed by the FOR or must struggle to keep his trade going now that world tension is relaxing. Alan F. Sawyer, Jr. 2D